Dan Rice, a former U.S. Army officer and military advisor, told Newsmax on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that there would not have been a war in Ukraine if President Donald Trump had been in office in 2022 — rather than President Joe Biden — may have some merit, but should not be taken at face value.
“I think anything Putin says is a lie,” Rice said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America Weekend” adding that the Russian leader is both “a terrorist and a liar.”
Rice noted that while Putin’s assertion is unreliable, Russia might have acted differently under Trump, pointing to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under Biden as a key factor.
“The worst thing we ever did was pull out our embassy and our U.S. Special Forces. That was basically a red carpet invitation for Russia to take what it wanted,” he said.
“As soon as the U.S. left Afghanistan, there was a void. President Biden was weak, as we all know now, and it essentially invited Putin to opportunistically take what he wanted — or try to take it. The thing that surprised him was the Ukrainians,” Rice added.
He stressed that the invasion was not provoked by Ukraine or the West, but was an opportunistic move by Putin, emboldened by what Rice described as perceived U.S. weakness.
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